Cross-cultural testing of three social cognitive theories: An application to condom use

The aim of this study was to test the cross-cultural validity of Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action, Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, and Triandis' theory of interpersonal behavior and to apply them to understanding the intention to use a condom with a new partner in three ethnocultural communities: Latin American, English-speaking Caribbean, and South Asian. All respondents were recruited from multiple ethnocultural-venues using predetermined sampling frames and quotas for each community. The results indicated that the three theories have cross-cultural validity, but the theories of Ajzen and Triandis performed better than the theory of Fishbein and Ajzen. It is recommended that role beliefs and moral norm (personal normative belief) be added to Ajzen's model to maximize its predictive and explanatory ability.